Dreading tomorrow

I'm dreading tomorrow.

It's not just getting up at 6.00 am for the TV Daybreak programme. It's the painful subject that I must discuss.

Since 1999 22 deaths of infants have been caused by blind cords. In most cases the playing child has become trapped in a loop in the cord . There is a worrying increase in the cases with half the 22 occurring since 2010. The most recent one involved Joshua Wakham aged 22 months in January  this year.

As in many cases of unexpected deaths Joshua's parents want to ensure that no other parents suffer the same agony. They wish to give some meaning to his brief life and his early death to help others. Bravely they are appealing for action.

It is believed that there are  250 million potentially lethal blinds in the UK. There is no instant easy solution that will avoid other deaths. Publicity such as tomorrow's broadcast will alert parents of the danger so that they can, if possible, rearrange the furniture in infants' room.

Infants' bodies are prone to suffer rapid deaths in these circumstances. I have written to my European MP Derek Vaughan urging progress in introducing changes in the safety rules.

My colleague Gordon Banks called for a ban on these looped blinds in 2008. The threat is one that was not anticipated in a similar one to the children who chocking after swallowing the tops of ballpoint pens. Simply manufacturing the tops with small holes in them have saved lives.

The ordeal of the programme will be far less for me than for Joshua's parents who must churn up the horror and grief they suffered when he died. But I must do all that I can to avoid any further deaths and I will make a new Commons call for a ban. 

 

Comments

[job finder]

Silence can appear in all types of interviews – the ones where there is instant connection between interviewer/s and the job candidate, other interviews that are performances of tired questioning and expected answers, and the straightforward “does what it says on the can” confrontational interviewing in hiring for a position.

[grand canyon tours]

The ruins of Copán are quite a long ways off.